DENVER, CO (MPG) - Since 1949, the National Civic League has recognized and celebrated the best in American civic innovation with the prestigious All-America City Award. This year, Rancho Cordova showed us how a determined community can tackle tough issues and create real change.

On June 23, 2019, Rancho Cordova, California was recognized as one of 10 All-America City award winners. The National Civic League presented this honor to recognize Rancho Cordova’s work in inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronger connections among residents, businesses and nonprofit and government leaders.

"We are happy to designate Rancho Cordova as an All-America City. They showed us today that they do a great job of engaging the whole city in creating a healthier community," said Doug Linkhart, President of the National Civic League

All applicants submitted their community-wide work on creating healthy communities through inclusive civic engagement and three projects for consideration, and the field was narrowed to 20. The finalist communities presented their projects and their communities to a jury. The entire presentation focused on three project examples showing how this community leverages civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues.

Rancho Cordova helps residents Eat. Stay. Love. and through Soil Born Farms—turns urban residents into farmers and teaches good nutrition; a mentorship and community service program for at-risk youth; and Mather Veterans Village—a housing community for homeless veterans.

The City of Rancho Cordova is focused on building a strong civic infrastructure that authentically seeks collaboration from residents and key partners. This shared vision of civic engagement is both overarching and neighborhood-specific, taking into account unique attributes of neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Engagement Program empowers residents to create strong neighborhoods with a high quality of life. Leaders from all ethnic groups are emerging from the program and are now active in five neighborhoods.

The National Civic League advances inclusive civic engagement through our community assistance programs, including tools, trainings and facilitation services, our award and recognition programs, and nationally recognized research and publications. We promote efforts that seek to listen to, and to learn from residents in ongoing conversations and leverage those insights to help reshape communities so they will thrive.

The All-America City Award is made possible through the support of Southwest Airlines, the official airline sponsor, Kaiser Permanente, national health partner, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, CGI Communications, Delta Dental, Colorado Health Foundation, Well Being Trust, ICMA-RC, U.S. Census Bureau, Comcast and Greenberg Traurig.